Next installment.
Tunes.
In short I cannot really tolerate the radio anymore. Even in my car which has radio, satellite, usb, bluetooth I find myself listening to the music on my phone most often.
So since Big Ugly had just a simple old Kenwood CD player that is missing knobs and has an overly confusing menu I decided it was time for an update. While I was at it I replaced the rear factory speakers with some cheap Boss 5x7 speakers which bolted directly in place of the originals. The front were already Infiniti reference series so I left them in place.
I got to looking around, and since I'm spoiled with a touchscreen in my car I decided to follow suit in the truck. What I found was a Boss single din with a 7" foldout screen that plays Cd's, DVD's, usb, aux inputs both audio video, 2 sub and 2 video outputs, MicroSd slot, backup camera input and blutooth hands free phone as well as music streaming. At $114 I said why not see how bad/good it is.
In attempting to remove the old stereo (never tried on this truck before) I removed the cover and the hvac controls thinking I would need access through there. Well wouldn't you know it the dash is very weak/soft in there and the plastic around the screw inserts came apart. Looked like this.
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Well that sucks. I found as many of the broken pieces as I could and used some super glue to piece it back together and after that it looked like this.
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It was strong enough to re-mount the control unit so I put it back together and will hope for the best.
Fortunately the previous system installed by ??? was put in with the proper wiring kit so it was a matter of disconnecting it from the old stereo and reconnecting it to the new one. Wiring harness went together easily.
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Installed the unit and powered it up. Works as advertised so far. Bluetooth works well and paired really easily. Radio works. Still waiting on my backup camera to arrive and did not wire in the brake (for dvd playback) yet so there will be a phase 2 to the install.
Here is the unit in place.
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The only issue really is the "hood" of the dash pad where it crosses over the stereo sticks out too far and the screen cannot open all the way. I've got it pulled out a half inch to clear it. Does anyone know of an insert that can go behind the mounting frame to move it forward so the stereo can be fully inserted in the frame and lock in place? If that's a pipe dream I'll make something but figured I'd ask first.